General Hawk, leader of the G.I. Joe team, is paralyzed. He has retreated into himself, into a state of depression, and someone else needs to step up and take the reigns. Although the replacement isn’t who any of us would have expected, it’s an elegant solution and one that I expect to make for some interesting stories.

This issue picks up on several threads from previous storylines. With Cobra Commander captured by the Joes, Destro makes a move to claim leadership of Cobra – with the help of a new friend. A Joe team heads out to Colorado to investigate a Cobra front that they’ve had under surveillance for some time (since issue #14, actually), and the new Joe leader has to face down the Jugglers, the shadowy group responsible for the Joe team, yet for some reason, openly hostile towards it.

This issue, by design, is somewhat all over the place. It advances several storylines without devoting much time to any single one, so as a result it’s not quite as tight as the series can be during a more focused story arc. Still, each story is advanced of its own right, there’s no filler in this issue. Nothing superfluous.

Tim Seeley always does a fine job on the artwork. He doesn’t have quite as much action as usual, but he manages to work in a couple of exciting scenes. His skills aren’t limited there, though, he handles the “talking heads” aspect of most of the issue with equal skill. He also provides us with a great cover that deftly summarizes the mood of the entire issue.

G.I. Joe, the core title, is still one of the best bets every month for fans of the old series. Even though the property, in this incarnation, is over 20 years old, there’s still a lot of room to grow.